A protein called midkine may help lung cancer spread to the brain
Original title: Midkine drives lung cancer brain metastasis via the NOTCH2/HES1 and PI3K/AKT pathways and serves as a prognostic biomarker.
How far along is this research?
- Lab cells
- Animals
- Review
- Tested in people
This was done in animals, not people. Most findings at this stage never become treatments.
The treatment idea was only tested in lab cells and in mice.
The short version
Lung cancer that had spread to the brain carried high levels of a protein called midkine.
What was studied. Researchers compared five pairs of samples, each with a lung tumor and a brain tumor from the same cancer. They also changed midkine levels in lung cancer cells in the lab, tested it in mice, and checked tissue from 24 lung cancer patients and 23 patients whose cancer had spread to the brain.
What they found. In the brain samples, 370 proteins were at higher levels and 530 were at lower levels. Midkine stood out as much higher in the samples that had spread. When the team lowered midkine in lab cells, the cells grew, moved, and invaded less. In mice, lowering midkine cut down spread to the brain and the mice lived longer.
What this means, and what it doesn't
What it could mean: Midkine could become a target for future drugs that try to stop lung cancer from reaching the brain. It might also help doctors spot who is at higher risk. Neither use is ready yet.
What it doesn't mean: This does not mean there is a new treatment. The work was done in cells, in mice, and in stored tissue samples. No drug that blocks midkine was tested in people, so there is nothing to ask your doctor for. It is not a cure, and it does not change your care today.
Source: PubMed, November 2, 2026 · Read the original
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